NEW YORK, October 29, 2026 – The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) today welcomed HHS’s Kidney Care National Plan and applauded Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz for their leadership in prioritizing access to living donor kidney transplants.

The plan highlights a longstanding gap: living donor transplant rates have been largely flat since 2000, while deceased donor kidney transplant rates among people on dialysis rose 33% from 2018 to 2024. It also identifies wide variation in how transplant centers operate their living donor programs.

“We applaud Secretary Kennedy, Administrator Oz and the HHS team for making living kidney donation a national priority,” said Andrew D. Howard, MD, FACP, Chairman of KTC. “The plan calls for the kind of practical support KTC has been working to put in place. Our Framework gives transplant centers a model to identify and engage more potential donors, and we look forward to working with HHS and CMS to help more patients and families benefit.”

The plan’s first recommendation on strengthening living kidney donation includes approaches to identify and engage potential donors. KTC’s Living Donor Program Enhancement Framework directly addresses that need, giving transplant centers a structured model and training materials to prepare volunteers from a patient’s own community to help identify potential donors and support them through the donation process, with guidance from dedicated transplant coordinator staff.

This fall, Dr. Howard presented the Framework to the majority of the participating transplant centers and CMS Innovation Center staff during an Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model office hour together with Northwell Health.

KTC’s work also has broad support. Congressional Kidney Caucus co-chairs Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Carol Miller (R-WV), along with a coalition of leading kidney and transplant organizations including the American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation, have affirmed that the costs of transplant coordinators who train volunteer living donor facilitators are allowable organ acquisition costs under Medicare’s existing rules.

About the Kidney Transplant Collaborative

The Kidney Transplant Collaborative (KTC) is dedicated to increasing kidney transplants and removing financial and logistical barriers for kidney patients, donors and their families. KTC focuses on increasing the number of living donor transplants in the United States through policy advocacy, education and community organizing. Learn more at www.kidneytransplantcollaborative.com.